AOL Opens Real Estate Center

America Online, in conjunction with Century 21, Intuit, Countrywide Home Loans and others, announced today the launch of an online real estate resource that's designed to inform AOL users about financing, buying, or selling real estate.

The AOL Real Estate Center (keyword: Real Estate) features five categories--Looking, Selling, Renting, Moving, and Financing--that are designed to give
AOL members direct access to loan information, financial calculators, home listings, and more.

AOL said the "Looking" area allows users to search for a home by city, and choose from more than 1 million home listings and real estate agency contacts.

The "Selling" section offers advice on selling homes, includes tax law information, and provides access to AOL Classified home listings, while the "Renting" resource includes over 500,000 rental units listed through AOL's alliance with Apartments.com.

The "Moving" area is comprised of information on neighborhood schools, churches, crime rates, and cost of living, while the "Financing" section enables users to shop and pre-qualify for loans with leading lenders, and check on loan and loan agent availability.

AOL said users are assisted in the Financing area by Intuit's QuickenMortgage loan origination system.